About City Plants

Our Mission is to create a greener future for the City of Los Angeles. We partner with multiple non-profit organizations to plant trees throughout LA, promote green jobs, and advocate for a sustainable Los Angeles.

Our Visionis a city in which people in every neighborhood have equal access to trees and their benefits: clean air, energy efficiency, better health, cooling shade, and a friendlier, more vibrant neighborhood.

How We Work: we provide free trees to LA residents, plant street trees in the City of LA, and educate and train community members in maintaining and caring for their canopy.

We work with multiple City departments and seven non-profit organizations to plant and give away 15,000 trees each year!

Our Priorities:

Planting in “low canopy” neighborhoods and ensuring those communities are empowered to establish and maintain those canopies;

City Plants is a public-private partnership between the City of Los Angeles, local non-profit organizations, community groups, residents, and businesses. City Plants is a unique hybrid organization under LA’s Board of Public Works with a non-profit 501(c)3 arm through Community Partners. Donations to the 501(c)3 are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

City Plants is a continuation of LA’s former tree planting program, Million Trees LA. Our new name reflects our changing priorities, which are to focus our efforts on low canopy areas and to plant in a way that maximizes the benefits trees provide rather than on reaching as specific number of trees.

In 2010, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s Trees for a Green LA Program was combined with Million Trees LA to make one unified tree planting program for the city. LADWP continues to support tree planting as an energy efficiency program and remains City Plants’ largest sponsor of citywide tree-planting efforts. Through this partnership, City Plants is able to provide free shade trees for residents and property owners in the City of LA, along with important information on where to plant those trees to maximize energy efficiency in homes or businesses.

Trees Save Energy

If planted to the west and east of a building, trees will provide shade during the hottest parts of the day, cooling the building and lessening the need for air conditioning. Less a/c use saves energy and money on your electricity bill. Using less energy also helps reduce the need to generate energy, which helps combat climate change.

Why Trees?

Trees filter asthma-causing pollution out of the air and help reduce the greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

They help us protect our famous beaches by capturing polluted storm water and helping it sink into the ground rather than wash out to sea.

Trees add beauty to our neighborhoods, which increases property values and makes business corridors more attractive to shoppers.

Trees can be an excellent way to keep your yard green while using less water, especially if you plant one of the many drought-resistant varieties available through our program.

Our urban forest gives us a lot. It’s up to each of us to take care of it and to leave a living legacy for future generations.

Plant Trees in Your Yard: If you live in the City of Los Angeles, you are eligible to receive up to seven free trees to plant on your property. Take care of them and watch them grow. Also, be on the lookout for our tree adoption events, where you can take home one tree to plant on your property. Plant them on the west or east side of the building to maximize shading and energy savings.

Sign Up for A Street Tree: If the parkway in front of your house is empty, sign up for a street tree to be planted in front of your house. All you have to do is water it! If you think your street could use more trees, become a block captain and sign up all of your neighbors.

Join a Community Tree Planting: Sign up to be notified about our volunteer events!

Donate: Help us continue to grow a healthy urban forest for generations to come with a one-time donation or by signing up for monthly giving!